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new TC



Last week 2 hours after I made my new rolled capacitors I ran my Tesla
Coil for 45 minutes until the choke coil burned up.  Friday morning I
discovered that 2 of the 3 transformers had stopped working on one side.
Luckly Thrusday I found 30 used transformers in Nashville for $10.00
each and I bought 10 of them.

I spent all day Friday and Saturday rebuilding my Tesla Coil.  I put
5 transformers in a wooden cabnet all 15,000 volts 30 ma in parallel.
I put 3 choke coils in series on each high voltage terminal of the
transformers.  50 mh air choke + 200 mh ferrite choke + 200 mh air
choke all in series.  I connected my tungston carbine Richard Quick
style spark gap across the chokes in parallel with the transformers.
The spark gap has 8 gaps all spaced exactly .030 each which operated
excellent before on 3 transformers that were 15,000 volts 30 ma each.
The gap is cooled with a small cage fan.  This time I connected 2 safety
gaps spaced .437 apart to the transformers one across each high voltage
terminal to the transformer case ground.  Before I had only one safety
gap spaced  .875 apart across the 2 high voltage terminals not to ground.
The 2 rolled .008 uf capacitors are connected in parallel.  The capacitors
are connected in series with the primary.  The series LC circuit is
connected in parallel with the spark gap as before.  Everything is
mounted in a wooden cabnet 24" square 16" tall with 4 caster wheels.

The primary is 6" inside diameter at the center and 30" outside diameter
helix wound 30 degrees made from 3/8" copper tubing spaced .750 center
to center.  The primary was designed for a 4" PVC secondary not the 7"
secondary that I am using.  The primary has 18 turns and is tapped at turn
16.  The primary is mounted to the top of the wooden power supply cabnet.
I plans to make another primary later designed for a new 7" secondary.

The secondary is 7" diameter by 37" long wound with 1600 turns of #
24 wire. I plan to make a new secondary later 7" diameter maybe with
about 900 to 1000 turns of larger diameter wire.  Does anyone have any
suggestions for a new secondary coil?   I have 4", 6.5", 7", 8.625",
10.5" diameter PVC pipe available for a new secondary coil.

The toroid is 2 stainless steel bowls 12" diameter each.  I will make
a new one later.

I tested the TC about 7:30 pm tonight and the output at the secondary is
very different than before.  Before with 3 transformers it produced 8 or
9 purple streamers from the toroid all the time.  Now with 5 transformers
it produces 5 very thick hot blue white streamers from the toroid all
the time.  With 3 transformers I was getting 44" arcs to the garage
door and now with 5 transformers I get only 40" arc to the garage door.
The arcs are much much louder than before.  It is so loud it hirts
my ears.  Sounds like a 2 cycle gas engine running wide open with no
muffler.  My work shop is behind the house about 100 feet from the house.
When I fired up the TC my wife came running out of the house and yelled,
"turn that thing off you're screwing up the TV."  I can''t see the TV
from the shop so I have no idea what it is doing to it.

With experements that I have done in the past I have noticed that
increasing the value of the chokes maked the secondary output arcs louder
and brighter but I have never notice any difference in the spark length.
I know I have probably over done it with my chokes but I don't want to
loose any more transformers.

I will probable replace the spark gap fan with a vacuum cleaner motor
and fan as soon as I can find one at the scrap yard.  I have a compressed
air spark gap that works fine but I don't use it because of my worthless
air compressor.

A few weeks ago I noticed by placing a piece of plexaglass over the top
opening of the secondary to cover the hole in the PVC pipe the output
sparks of the secondary got a little louder and a little brighter.
How is that possible?

I think I liked my Tesla Coil better with 3 transformers.  Its not as
loud, it makes longer sparks, it makes more sparks and my wife still
yells at me.

Gary Weaver